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Musical Courier 1903-07-01: Vol 47 Iss 1214, 1903
59 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE MUSICAL COURIER.
3erel direction of M. Sangey, manager of the Opéra at Nice. Luigini, one of the best conductors of the Opéra Comique, leaves that theatre and takes the post of musical director and first conductor at the Gaîté. The intentions of the brothers Isola are to give alternate performances of grand opéra and opéra comique, to be selected mostly from works either new or not generally known to the Parisian public. Among the latter "Herodiade," for instance, which has never yet been performed in French in Paris. In this work will be seen Mlle. Calvé, the baritone Renaud, and Jérôme, tenor. The "Armida" of Gluck will also be mounted, and I believe the "Messalina" of Isidore de Lara, also not yet given in Paris. Mlle. Marie Thiéry (Madame Luigini), one of the principal light sopranos of the Opéra Comique, will be the leading female singer of the lighter works, and there will be performances every night during the season. "La Vie du Poète," the symphonic poem by Gustave Charpentier, which he has for some time past been arranging as a stage version, is also spoken of as likely to be produced. Many eminent singers are also spoken of as being engaged, but, as their contracts are not yet signed, I do not speak of them. It will be time enough to do that when they are announced to appear. The artists I have spoken of are definitely engaged.
5Mlle. Yvonne de Tréville, the young American singer, is meeting with uninterrupted success in Europe. At the Royal Theatre (Opera), of Stockholm, she has been asked to sign again for the months of October and November of next season. She has also definitely closed an engagement of two months for a no less important theatre than the Imperial Opéra, of St. Petersburg, where grand opera is given on a very large scale in French and Italian. For December, January and February Mlle. de Tréville is under contract to appear in opera at Cairo. DE VALMOUR.
7PARIS NOTES.
9PARIS, JUNE 20, 1903.
11HE great benefit to a musician (composer) who has gained the Prix de Rome, necessitating a sojourn of some years at the Villa Medicis in the Eternal City, or its utter uselessness from a practical point of view, are points still being discussed in the musical journals of Paris. Musica publishes a letter entitled "Considerations on the Prix de Rome, from a Musical Point of View," by Claude Debussy, the young composer of "Pelléas et Mélisande" and other works. Debussy is himself a Prix de Rome. He says: "In certain circles, to have or not to have gained a Prix de Rome resolves the question as to whether or no one has talent. But unfortunately this method of deciding the question, although easy, loses ground when we notice that Saint-Saëns, official head of the young French school, never gained this prize, any more than Vincent d'Indy, chief-elect of a still younger group. Without discussing the personal value of these two men, they are both equally 'representative.' To see them thus excluded from having obtained this coveted honor causes a doubt as to the mode of distributing it; for the logical reason that these two seem designated above all others to have merited the distinction. I think it good and wise to facilitate the visiting of Italy and Germany by young composers; but why restrict it to these two countries? And why, above all, grant that unfortunate diploma which puts them on the level of decorated oxen who have gained a prize? The academic calmness which these judges of the institute point out which of these young composers is going to be an artist has in it an ingenuous confidence that is really touching. How can they foretell; where gained they such confidence in predicting so risky a career?
13"To come back to the Prix de Rome. It is always judged by a work called a 'cantata,' a hybrid form which partakes awkwardly of what is weakest in opera; or by a 'symphony with singing characters,' a form so genuinely 'academic' that I would never advise anyone to own himself its author. Besides, these forms have the grave defect of taking away musicians from absolute music, giving them precociously the taste for the theatre, that is, opera, a form which to many of them is only an enlarged style of cantata.
15"When one complains of the small quantity of symphonies that France can contrast with the production of other countries, it is possible that this Prix de Rome might be the explanation. Were I possessed of statistical acumen I could easily prove that scarcely any symphonic music bears the academic or official stamp. When it does, then it is never what one expected. I will cite an illustrious example—Massenet. We saw this composer recently make his début in this class of music by a concerto for piano and orchestra, given this season at the Conservatoire concerts. With perhaps some little irreverence he was advised to go back to 'Manon!' This concerto was probably no worse than some others, but the education and tendencies of Massenet have not been directed toward absolute music; there he cannot have the sure and triumphant success to which he is habituated on the stage.
17"As to chamber music, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, &c., have written a vast quantity. This is fortunate, for the modern repertory would be counted without stopping to take breath. It bends beneath the heavy weight of the past; not because it contains no perfect work, but that it is not sufficiently encouraged. So we have little to represent our own epoch, but one sonata for piano, that of Paul Dukas. By the grandeur of its conception, it takes place immediately after the sonatas of Beethoven. Besides one must admit that this class of composition exacts a special crucible into which one must cast all one's peace as a holocaust, as well as being unprofitable. Farewell the opera composers' pecuniary rights, and the flattering grasp of opera managers' hand. One is only a species of savant, regarded by one's confrères with that species of condescension which success has rendered scornful. But if instead of the Prix de Rome, a 'Certificate of Advanced Studies' were granted. Certificate given for the completeness of a musical education, and which would prove the complete knowledge of music in all its forms. Then, let the young possessor be sent through Europe, where, if he could be found, they might select a master who would teach them that art is not necessarily bounded by buildings subventioned by the state; that one must love it for itself through all privations, all opinions; not seek solely by it to make one's self a 'position.'
19"It seems to me that in the irame of the Villa Médicis, at not too great a cost, might be erected one of those universities which are the pride of Oxford (England). It might not be useless at the same time to copy some of the material conditions which are insufficient from every point of view, and do not make one boast of being a Frenchman. Ought not the Villa Médicis, which dominates Rome in all its haughty beauty, be an intellectual centre, alive and vibrating with all the arts it contains, where one would go with the confident joy of youth? Unfortunately for many it is only a place where one has to put in the regulation period, and where, judging by the stipulated works sent, it is not absolutely certain that the occupants work much. Melancholy summing up, but which tends to prove better than any criticism the uselessness of a Prix de Rome; at all events to accomplish the destiny of art, which is to manifest the beauty of any epoch."
21Architecture, particularly so far as regards theatres of opera, has made great strides since Garnier designed the Académie Nationale de Musique, as it is called; that is, the Paris Opéra. It is felt that the arrangements at that house of the present stage and the disposition of the orchestra are no longer suitable to the proper scenic and musical presentation of the modern lyric drama. It is therefore a question of remodeling the proscenium. This would also necessitate a suppression of those absurd boxes—ten, I think—which are on the stage proper and away from the auditorium when the curtain is down. The cost of this transformation and a different arrangement for the orchestra, is calculated at about 300,000 francs, or, say, $60,000. A large sum to be voted by Parliament when it is borne in mind that the Opéra has an annual subsidy of 1,000,000 francs. These contemplated changes could not be begun until it is known as to who the future director will be. It is not yet certain if the present manager, M. Gailhard, whose engagement ends at the end of 1906, will be reappointed for a third term.
23It may interest amateurs to learn the prices of some violins sold recently in Paris at the Hotel Drouot, forming a part of the celebrated Madame Lelong collection. Two remarkable specimens of Stradivarius, one dated 1720, and which had been revarnished, sold for 12,000 francs ($2,400), and the other, dated 1725, entirely relined, for 10,500 francs, or $2,100. Caressa, a violin dealer and expert, became the possessor of the two instruments at these figures. A Testore violoncello, dated Milan, 1735, steadily rose in bidding until it was disposed of at 2,050 francs, and an old Italian violin, the greater portion of which was by Granicino, fetched at the same auction 1,050 francs.
25DE VALMOUR.
27Graduating Concert, German Conservatory.
29CARL HEIN and August Fraemcke, directors of the New York German Conservatory of Music, presented a brilliant entertainment for the close of the season at the concert in Mendelssohn Hall. Those who took part were Misses Dennison, Kiel, Ter Meer, Woolnough, Laura Matt, Blanche Gutman, Elsie Byk, Johanna Offermann, Josephine Longinotti, Fanny Levine, Julia Jobes, Emilie Decker, Emma Weiler, Lorette Applegate and Bessie Cronk. Emil Muench, J. F. Kuehne, C. Frieling and B. Russell Throckmorton presented the certificates, diplomas and gold medals at the close of the program. Of the singers Johanna Offermann and Lorette Applegate, pupils of Mme. Ida Fraemcke-Klein and A. Dahm-Petersen respectively, took the honors, and this paper has frequently mentioned some of the others.
31Certificates were presented to Laura Ricker, Angelica Morales, Ada Morey, Mathilde G. Kelly, Grace C. Schwandt, Louise Nelson, Christina H. Keller, Nettie Hollander, Marie Wilkins, Elizabeth G. Holmes, Mary G. Gaynor, Anna R. Kastenbein, Emma Roth, Anna Cecelia Trihey and Grace Schad.
33Diplomas were presented to Julia E. Jobes, Ruth S. Vikberg, Pauline Gutter, Marie Cornell, Margaret Claire Grace, Josephine Longinotti, Hallie L. Anderson, Ida K. Kiel, Ethel Beatrice Woolnough, Laura Matt, Anna Cecelia Trihey, Emma ter Meer, Nettie Hollander, Marie Rotholz, Helen M. Brant, Blanche Gutman, Katherine Dennison, Inda Cromwell, Esther Love Spies, Bessie Cronk, Emilie Decker, Letitia E. Gracey and Edward Keale.
35Gold medals were presented to Elsie Byk and Emma Weiler.
37Meysenheym Pupil Sings.
39A DELE RECHT has studied with Mme. Cornelie Meysenheym an extended period, and feels she owes her much; she was soloist Sunday at the great memorial service at the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, also at the first concert of the Arverne Hotel.
41THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF APPLIED MUSIC
42(THE METROPOLITAN COLLEGE OF MUSIC),
43EDGAR O. SILVER, President.
44212 West 59th Street, NEW YORK CITY.
45The Faculty and Examiners: William Mason, Albert Ross Parsons, Harry Rowe Shelley, Tom Karl, John C. Griggs, Paul Ambrose, H. Rawlins Baker, Alfred D. Wickes, Kate S. Chittenden, William F. Sherman, Geo Coleman Gow, McCall Lanham, Mina M. Bruère and others.
46The advantages are unequalled in America. Eighteenth Year begins September 28, 1903.
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48KATE S. CHITTENDEN, Dean of the Faculty.
50ASHTON'S ROYAL AGENCY
5138 Old Bond St., LONDON, W.
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